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In case you didn’t know, registration for TEDxConcordia 2011 opened yesterday. We’ve been preparing this day for quite some time, but we’re blown away by the response of the community. Needless to say, it was a pretty hectic day on our side.

We’re excited to announce tech firm Vigilant Futures (@vigilantfutures) is partnering with TEDxConcordia to bring you the 2011 event. Check it out, great people and an amazing organization that embodies much of TED’s vision.

At work: Vigilant Futures is a Montreal-based R&D firm focused on pushing the limits of technology. At play: devoted to community initiatives that improve & advance youth education.

Right off the presses, you’ll be seeing these all around campus starting next week. Beautiful Helvetica posters with plenty of whitespace. Hope you like ‘em! If you haven’t yet, go ahead and nominate someone you’d like to see at TEDxConcordia 2011.

We’re great fans of Sir Ken Robinson’s two TEDTalks. Here’s his great talk on education at the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts (RSA), a rising organization that embodies much of TED’s vision.

Getting involved with TEDxConcordia is an amazing experience, it’s a great networking opportunity and a fascinating adventure.

If you’re interested in helping make TEDxConcordia a great event, join us for an info session Thursday, September 30 in Concordia’s MB building, 3rd floor lounge (map). You’ll have the opportunity to meet everyone involved and get a feel if TEDxConcordia is right for you. Here are examples of areas you could help out:

Marketing: a community manager to maintain our online social presence

Logistics: photographers and/or film producers

Sponsorship: pitching prospective sponsors

Speakers: scouting Montreal for the hidden gems

You don’t need any experience in any of these field, but you do need an near-obsessive passion for TED and the desire to help.

TED’s head honcho, Chris Anderson, just released his first TEDTalk. He makes the case that online video is profoundly changing our lives and how we spread ideas. As you’d expect, it’s fascinating. You really should watch it.

Our ancestors were biologically wired for word-of-mouth. We learned in small communities and passed on our knowledge face-to-face.

Then Gutenberg came around. The printing press radically changed how we spread ideas. It upped the ante for everyone. And from Twitter to Wikipedia, we built our knowledge systems on the legacy of the written word. Never, in the history of humanity, have we had access to so much knowledge.

The problem is that the printed word required that we educate ourselves out of our evolutionary origins. Because of physical constraints, we traded the lack of face-to-face connection and the communal aspect of learning for scaling knowledge. It required that we artificially teach ourselves to actually enjoy reading. The medium disconnected us from the fundamental idea of tribal sharing.

We’re living through a second revolution. It’s not anymore about the vastness knowledge, but about the medium. Online video scales this powerful face-to-face intimate connection. It appeals to our basic instincts in a very fundamental way.

Once again, TEDxMcGill and TEDxConcordia team up to bring you September’s event. The 3rd instalment of a recurring event that will gather a community of TED enthusiasts to watch and discuss two fascinating TEDTalks. It’s free, informal and relaxed (no need to speak if don’t want to). It’s a good opportunity to meet the people behind TEDxMcGill & TEDxConcordia, as well as fellow TEDsters and other great people from Montreal.

TEDxMcGill and TEDxConcordia have teamed up to create the second session of our joint initiative:

Discussions with TEDxMcGill & Concordia

A recurring event, that will gather a community of TED enthusiasts to watch and discuss enticing TEDTalks. This will also be a great opportunity to meet the people behind TEDxMcGill & TEDxConcordia, as well as fellow TEDsters and other great people from Montreal.